Grayden and Lucky - my two good boys

 Since I last posted, Tanya and I took the bus to Edmonton to visit my son and his family. Mostly to visit my grandson Grayden whom I last saw in August and whom Tanya had never met. Thank goodness for WhatsApp video calling. Tanya stayed three days and came home as Lucky was at our friend Ed's place and she figured five days was enough. Bus from Regina to Edmonton is a full 10 hours but a return trip is only $240 CAD. Flying is impossibly expensive. 

And like any holiday, it takes days to catch up on things left undone while away.

Grayden has learned so many things and learns something new every day at that age. He will be 8 months tomorrow (3rd) and will pull himself up and stand on the couch by himself, and yesterday learned to crawl forward. He was crawling backwards and rolling as means to move around. While he has ample toys, he prefers real things. Like the TV remote and knows which one works the TV and which one does not. 

He quite loved his Babushka and missed her when she left. He is usually all smiles for everything but is cutting teeth, he has two with more soon, and sometimes fusses about that. He likes the TV on because of colour and action. So I got to watch lots of Disney Pixar movies. I would say UP was my favourite.

So here are pictures of my smiling boy:

Look waaaaay up

He loves his Baba Tanya

And his Grandpa Al

Saying goodbye at the bus stop

He is always happy in the morning

Lucky, our three and a half year old German Shepherd, is the most expensive non registered dog in Regina. Getting him here will keep us broke for the next few years and keeping him here isn't cheap either. I raised four kids at less cost than this dog. Our new veterinary clinic is 2 km from our house so I walked him down Friday for his annual vaccinations and internal and external parasite control. I raised four kids at less cost than this dog. But he is one of the family so. . .

Lucky is very protective and likes to look out the window and bark at anything that moves on the street. When walking his, he will often bark and lunge at large vehicles like buses, trucks or big pickup trucks. If someone is walking towards us he will bark and lunge. If they are working he will ignore them. He never bites anyone but doesn't need to as he is 36 kg and very scary. If neither Tanya and I are around or he escapes to the street, he is friendly as can be. 

Tanya speaks to him in Russian and he understands her very well. Get the ball, where is your toy, and so on. He listens to her but not to me. Sleeping on the bed is his greatest pleasure. Until he gets too warm when he moves to the floor. If I get up in the night, I find him lying by my pillow where it is warm, with his sad brown eyes daring me to move him. 

His favourite toy is a #3 soccer ball which he can carry in his mouth. He has several bouncy balls and will catch them when thrown but always goes back to the soccer ball. We couldn't find it for two days. It was under the couch. How he managed to do that is beyond us. He must have pushed it very hard to make it fit. He has plush toys, some with squeakers. He will shake them like a rat but has never destroyed one. 

Lucky likes his head on the pillow

Chewing on an ice block

His favourite toy - a soccer ball

Our backyard

He puts a ball in a shoe then carries the shoe around